Ships
Numerous different ships ply the oceans of the Known World. Major military fleets in the Seven Kingdoms House Baratheon of Dragonstone Fleet *''Fury'' *''Black Betha'' Iron Fleet *''Sea Bitch'' Other ships in the Seven Kingdoms *''Myraham'' - a trading galley from Oldtown in the Reach Outside the Seven Kingdoms *''Balerion'' - the ship which Daenerys Targaryen traveled in from Qarth to Astapor in Slaver's Bay. She renamed in "Balerion" in honor of the dragon ridden by his ancestor Aegon the Conqueror in the War of Conquest. In the books In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, any major lords of coastal areas in Westeros will keep a warship or three on hand for fighting pirates, but there are only a few large-scale fleets. The three largest are: *The Royal Fleet - in the east, docked at Dragonstone to defend nearby King's Landing from attack. *The Redwyne Fleet - in the southwest, belonging to House Redwyne of the Arbor, staunch vassals of House Tyrell. *The Iron Fleet - in the west, belonging to the ironborn as a whole, under the command of their current ruler from House Greyjoy. The ironborn maintain many hundreds of longships, including the formidable Iron Fleet, which consists of almost all of the ironborn's larger warships and galleys. House Redwyne also commands a substantial fleet based at the Arbor. House Lannister maintains a small coastal fleet at Lannisport, burned during the Greyjoy Rebellion but subsequently rebuilt. House Stark has had no strength at sea since Brandon the Burner destroyed the Northern fleet, after his father sailed west into the Sunset Sea and never returned. At the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings, the Royal Fleet in the east consists of about 200 war galleys plus support ships, and the Redwyne Fleet also consists of about 200 war galleys plus support ships. The Iron Fleet consists of 100 longships, which are faster than war galleys but have less tonnage, but are only the core ships which are held to belong to the Iron Islands as a whole, directly under the command of House Greyjoy, and which can dip 100 oars each. The Iron Fleet is supported by other longships which belong to each of the noble Houses of the ironborn, which collectively number over 500 longships, though most dip only 20 oars and are meant to quickly transport raiding parties, not to engage in pitched ship-to-ship naval combat. Other major lords might keep a war galley or three in their ports to ward off pirates, but do not possess major offensive capabilities. While House Lannister can afford a reasonably sized fleet, due to the close proximity of the Iron Islands to the coasts of the Westerlands their ships are kept in a defensive posture to protect ports such as Lannisport from attack: this ties down House Lannister's personal naval assets during the war. Up until the Battle of the Blackwater, no faction (other than the ironborn) made extensive use of ships to maneuver in the war. Stannis was gathering his ships for a quick and decisive strike at King's Landing itself, while the Lannisters were holding their ships back to brace for Stannis' assault. While the Battle of the Blackwater did remove the threat of further assaults on the capital by Stannis, this left Joffrey's Royal Fleet so depleted that no thought was given to naval maneuvers against other factions such as House Stark (i.e. with barely a dozen ships afloat, the Lannisters never considered making a sea-based invasion of White Harbor in the North). Thus the War of the Five Kings would continue to be decided by land forces. The naval forces available to the Iron Throne were so depleted that for many months after the battle no thought was given to making a follow-up assault upon Stannis' stronghold on Dragonstone island, because the Lannisters simply no longer possessed the number of ships needed to mount an invasion of the formidable island fortress. Stannis was left sidelined from the war, bereft of most of his army and unable to make any significant strikes again, while the Lannisters were content to let him rot on Dragonstone while they rebuilt their superior forces (as seen in Season 3 of the TV series). Yara Greyjoy (named "Asha" in the books) is captain of her own ship in the Iron Fleet. The books specify that the name of her ship is the Black Wind. See also * Ships at A Wiki of Ice and Fire (spoilers from the books) Category:Ships Category:Weapons Category:Culture